The History of David Grieve

g her head round the door, so as to be heard by her husband,

seed un si

've yerd nothin ov em since. Coom in to your tay, Reuben! I'll keep

and wife came out together, and stood look

chen, and pointing to a chair piled with various garments. 'That's why she doon it, I spose. I'll be even w

t and the light waned, went as far as the corner by Wigson's farm, asked a passer-by, saw and

nd she was just going back into the house when an exclamation from Reuben stop

, pointing; 'what ive

ed at it with amazement, for it was their own basket, and in it reposed the loaves David had been told to bring back from Cloug

euben looked up,

Hannah, they

d supperless, and yesterday, for some impertinence, Hannah had given her a blow, the marks of which on her cheek Reuben had watched guiltily all day. At night he had dreamed of Sandy. Since M

what they are. An if yo doan't tak a stick to boath on them when they coom back, I will, soa theer, Reuben Griev

into dimness, and to the east, above the ridge of Kinder Low, a young moon was rising. The black steep wall of the Scout was swiftly taking to itself that majesty which all mountains win from the approach of night.

the road, and a ma

outed Hannah, 'i

whose girls were Louie's only companions. He was a full-blooded swaggering youth, with whom David was gener

ah asked him questio

an lots o' foak ha gone ower there to-day. You may mak your mind up they've gone to Edale. That Louie's a limb, s

aid Hannah, grimly. 'Them as cooms

f they're gone to Edale,' said Jim, with a

ground,' said Reuben une

gets mornin, if they've ony sort o' gumption. But, bless yo, it bean't gooin to be a dark neet, '-and he pointed to the moon. 'Th

ad lately calved and was in a weakly state. He gave the animal her food and clean litter, doing everything mo

farmyard into the lane, and then

to himself, apologetically, as he guiltily ope

ane. Hannah guessed where he had gone without much difficulty; but her guess only raised her wrath to a white heat. Troublesome brats Sandy's children had always been-Louie more especially-but they had

lay hands on 'em,' she thought to herself as she stoo

creaking, and the bolts and bars heavy. They were generally secured before supper by Hannah herself, and, though they might be surreptitiously oiled, the children despaired-considering how close the kitchen was to the front door-of getting out without rousing Hannah's sharp ears. Other projects, in w

expressed than on this occasion. But he could not shake Louie off. She pinched him wh

the morning they would come back and take their beatings. David comfortably reflected that Uncle Reuben couldn't do

d; 'I'll leave 'em in t' stable, an when we coom home, I'll tie 'em

h's observation, deposited their basket by the gate, took up a bundle and tin box which David had hidden that morning under the hedge, and, creep

ross it, and up the face of the Scout-up, and up, with smothered laughter, and tumble

g peewits, who fled before them, crying with plaintive shrillness to each other, as though in protest; and past grouse-nests, whence the startled mothers soared precipitately with angry duckings, each leaving behind her a loose gathering of eggs lying wide and open on the heather, those newly laid gleaming a brighter red beside their fellows. The tin box and its contents rattled under David's arm as he leapt and straddle

posit of witch-lore and belief still surviving in the Kinder Scout district, as in all the remoter moorland of the North. Especially had he won the confidence of a certain 'owd Matt,' a shepherd from a farm high on Mardale Moor; and the tales 'owd Matt' had told him-of mysterious hares coursed at night by angry farmers enraged by the 'bedivilment' of their stock, shot at with silver slugs, and identified next morning with some dreaded hag or other lying groaning and wounded in her bed-of calves' hearts burnt at midnight with awful ceremonies, while the baffled witch outside flung herself in rage an

personage was still fresh in the mind of many a grey-haired farmer; the history of her death was well known; and most of the local inhabitants, even the boys and girls, turned out, when you came to inquire,

at would they see?' His

soon as she had got her breath again. 'Are yo c

tuously and did not

ng his box and bundle again. 'They'st

e lying fantastically piled upon each other at every angle and in every possible combination. The path which leads from the Hayfield side across the desolate tableland of the Scout to the Snake Inn on the eastern side of th

ps backward in the curve of which the Downfall makes the centre. At the outward edge of the curve a great buttress of ragg

swung after him, as lithe and sure-footed as a cat. Presently David s

at block, over which hung another like a penthouse roof. On the side of the Down

id orange colour, produced, apparently, in the grit by the action of water; and about halfway down the fall a mass of rock had recently slipped, leaving a bright scar, through which one saw, as it were, the inner mass of the Peak, the rectangular blocks, now thick, now thin, as of so

ar them, and from the path up above they were screened by the grit 'edge' already spoken of. Moreover, their penthouse, or half-gable, had towards the Downfall a tolerably wide opening

m a jagged piece of tarpaulin, a hammer, some wooden pegs, and two or three pieces of tallow dip. Louie, sitting cross-legged in the other corner, with her chin in her hands, looked on with her usual detached and critical air. David had not allowed her much of

he rock which roofed them, pegged it down into crevices at either end, and laid a stone to hold it in the middle. Then he slipped back again, and,

cornfully, more than half inclined to put o

eturned David, and Louie's curio

ed eye, to the river, to the pasture-fields on the hill beyond, and to the smoke, rising above the tops of some unseen trees, which marked the site of the farmhouse. No one in sig

he cheese, lurked a grease-bespattered lantern and a box of matches. David had borrowed the lantern that afternoon from a Clough End friend under the most solemn vows of secrecy, and he drew it out now with a deliberate and special relish. When he had driven a peg

hat tarpaulin's for?' he in

upied with a bull's-eye, and she only

t we couldno ha no leet. They'd see us from

ie, laconically, in a voice

't; I'm gooin

idity with which the mouthfuls disappeared, slid up on her heels and claimed her share. Never was there a more savoury meal than that! Their little den with its curtain felt warm for the moment after the keen air

the world outside. Darkness was fast advancing. A rising wind swept through the dead br

said pettishly;

k o' nothin. It's parishin cowd here, neets-fit to tie yo up in knots wi th' rheumatics, like Jim Spedding, if

pale cloudy moon, the darkness which was fast enveloping them-blotting out the distant waves of hill, and fusing the great blocks of grit above them into one threatening mass-all these became suddenly hateful to her. She went back into their den, wrapped her

etles which ran across the rocky roof above her head, or crept in and out of the crevices of stone, wondering, no doubt, at this unbidden and tormenting daylight. She caught one or two small blackbeetles in a dirty rag of a handkerchief-for she w

he little path behind, gleaming white in the moonlight, because of the quartz sheddings which wind and weather are forever teasing out of the grit, and which drift into the open spaces; a

each other at intervals of a yard or two, and it is they which make the crossing of the Peak in the dark or in mist a matter of danger sometimes even for the native. David, high on his bank, from which the black overhanging eaves curled inwards beneath his feet to a sullen depth of water, could see against the moonlit sky the posts which marked the track from the Downfall to the Snake Inn on the Glossop Road. Miss that track-a matter of some fifteen minutes' walk for the sturdy farme

, crossed by ships with decks manned by heroes for whom the blue distance was for ever revealing new lands to conquer, new adventures to affront; the plumed Indian in his forest divining the track of his enemy from a displaced leaf or twig; the Zealots of Jehovah urging a last frenzied defence of Jehovah's Sanctuary against the Roman host; and now, last of all, the gloom and flames, the infe

opy of 'Paradise Lost,' which was now in one of his pockets, balanced by 'Anson's Voyages' in the other. All the morning he had been lying

plain, forl

desolation,

limmering of th

le and d

nd its impenetrable horizons; the fitful moonlight stood for the glimmering of the Tartarean flames; the remembered words and the actual sights played into and fused with each

little at the thought, but he would not have flinched for the world. He was not going to lose his wits,

stooped, put hi

he sound of heavy boots on stones, and it was brought to him by the wind, as it seemed, from

w a dim glow-worm light beyond the cliff, on the dark rib of the mountain. It was invisible from below, but any roving eye from the top would be caught by it in an instant. In a second he

r t'leet, Louie, t

in, and the two children crouched

ace against the side of the rocks, and trying to loo

re's talkin-theer's someon

Louie, between her small, s

lls and cats bite-the

tary kick as he felt the nip, went into first a fit of sm

they're coomin, an I blee

unable to obey his own injunction and he crept ou

ied Louie, in a shrill whisper;

t goo; if yo do 'at I

ion, he knelt down and looked over the edge of t

Uncle Reuben, an he's talkin to

him to come back into the den. David had no fears of being discovered

ch they had descended, they heard someone puffing and blowing, a stick striking and slipping on the stones, and

nder the gable, 'an I mun hear what he's sayin.

y they had come down by in a moment, and she was left alone. Her s

tain masking whatever sounds he may have made, till he found himself direc

ey're aw reet, Sand

r an overhanging stone, arrested b

y, though there were many rumours. What the close and timid Reuben heard from Mr. Gurney, the head of Sandy's firm, after Sandy's death, he told to no one but Hannah. The children knew generally, from what Hannah often let fall when she was in a temper, that their mother was a

parents. And to hear his father's name dropped like this into the night moved the lad stra

s rested, Reuben got up and began to move about with the

d! Lo

pitch, died away on the night wind, and a weird

and instead, he crept well out of reach of the rays which flashed over the precipitous ground about him. As he did so he noticed the Mermaid's Pool, gleaming

was besides preoccupied by Jim Wigson's suggestion. After a bit he picked up his stick and went on again. David, eagerl

at a point beyond the stream, the bed of which was jus

cooms in,' thought David, wondering.

r moor, till at last it made a long circuit downwards, disappearing for a minute somewhere in the dark bosom of Kinder Low, about midway between earth and sky. David guessed that Uncle Reuben

all-that mysterious word Sandy, had touched the boy, made him restless. His mood grew a

nd found a dark elfish figure standing out

't yo?' screeched the child, beside herself. She

er yo if yo doan't howd your

h, borrowed from the same friend who had provided the lantern. Past nine. T

nd had grown, and how nipping was the air! David shivered, and looked about for the rugs.

se of responsibility, as he happened to notice how starved she look

ing the rest of David's advice, sat bolt upright against the roc

over the great staring eyes the lids had just fallen, sorely against their owner's will; the head was dropping against the rock; the child was fast asleep. It occurred to David she looked odd; the face seemed so grey and white. He instinctivel

ockets, marking time to warm himself. How the wind

son, the struggle in the water, the last gurgling cry-the vision rose before him on the dark with an ever ghastlier plainness than a while ago on the mountain-top. How had 'Lias seen her that the sight had changed him so? Did she come to him with her drowned face and

it over, gradually resolved upon it. She would le

upwards, piercing through the noises of river and wind

r, watching her breathing with a merry look, which gradually became a broad grin. It was a real shame-she would be just mad when she woke up. But mermaids were all stuff, and Jenny Crum would 'skee

e hour out. So he lay staring at the opposite wall of rock, at its crevices, and creeping ants, at the odd lights and sha

smell? She leant forward on her elbow. The lantern was just going out, an

wing above the horse-rug, was roused by a shower of blows from Louie's fists. He stirred uneas

bed his eyes. There was Louie sitting opposite to him, crying great tears of rage

out his watch. Hal

Yo good-for-nowt, yo muffin-yed, yo donkey!' And so on through all the words of r

the disturbance they had made, all to end in this flat and futile over-sleeping, seized upon him so that he could not control himself. He lau

t keep bully-raggin like 'a

k and lay on her face, howling with pa

t' matter w

make nothing of her till her passion had spent it

ng near, shivering, with his ha

place in t' stable ull be warmer nor this. You be parished if yo s

er own lost chance seemed to be burning a hole in her. But the stress of his miserable look

aid, with a sudden lo

y. 'It's got th' cowd in't, that's what it is; it's th'

d tied his tin box across his back, and Louie, with the rugs wrapped about her, clung, limping, and with teeth chatteri

mocking; and the world altogether felt so raw and lonely that David welcomed the first sheep they came across with a leap of the heart, and positively hungered for a first sight of the farm. How he got Louie-in whose cheeks the fever-s

here. Yes; the dogs had heard them! Such a barking as began! Jock, in his kennel by the front door, nearly burst his chain in his joyful efforts to get at the

and deathly pale on a s

f,' said David, looking anxi

nd nothing happened. Ten minute

ed, as Tib jumped up at her

ood looking at her in despair. They had always supposed they would be locked out; but surely the sleepers inside must hear the dogs.

es shut, went on convulsively sobbing, while Tibby sniffed about her for sympathy. And the bitter win

d moved the blind-a hand the children knew well, and a face appeared to one side of it. Hannah Grieve had never looked so forbidding as at that moment. The boy caught one glance of a

t last, there was an agitation in the blind, as though more than one person was behind it. It was Hannah who lifted it again; bu

le Reuben!-coom down an see for yorsel. If yo le

e-door-looked deliberately, and then, as deliberately, pulled the

thumped with the other, kicking lustily the while at the panels, till Louie, almost forgetting her pains in the fierce excitem

's turned sick! She's clemmed wi t' cold. If yo doan't open th' door, I'll go acr

his red hair sticking up wildly from his hea

began Reuben, with would-be severity. 'Ha do

d farmer shrank before him, as David's black eye

oin to bring Louie in. We've bin on t' moor by t' Pool lookin for th' owd witch, an we

ied out as he lifted her up, he h

' cried Reuben. 'Hannah

the way, the chill morning light falling on her threatening attitude

ts,' she said grimly, 'may fare

tion-his sister on his arm. But as he met the woman's

w yo hate th' seet on us. But I wor t' worst. I'm t' biggest. Tak Louie in, and bully-rag

ment of the struggle, the anguish of movement had

he fact with a sort of fierce reluctance. '

oved out

nd, stumbling over the tattered rugs,

t the passage wall,

id to her under his breath, in a low, shaken voi

fire,' was all the reply she vo

laid on her bed. Consciousness h

to die, and he had done it. At last he sank down beside her, and

rom here, Louie, when I can. I'll tak ca

g up with some hot gruel, found him sitting on the bed beside his sister, on who